Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel Get Real About Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

Thank goodness it's almost November 25 a.k.a. the day Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life finally arrives in our life. Lorelai and Rory Gilmore will return to the small screen via Netflix—and for four 90-minute episodes, everything will seem a little more sparkly, loving, and familiar. Granted, the Gilmore Girls revival won't be without it's tearful moments (even the trailer made us cry), but maybe that will be a cathartic moment for us all. Until then, we sat down with Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel to get the lowdown on how things have changed in their personal lives, what they remember about the first time they met, and more. If you think you've heard or read everything there is to know about these two, think again.

Glamour: How have you both changed this time around?

Alexis Bledel: I'm definitely more grateful. It’s like a chance to have a do-over. You never really get that in life. To get to reimagine the same character eight years later, it’s kind of great, creatively, to get to do that. You get to take all the things that you find interesting about the character and then hopefully inject that with whatever you picked up along the way personally.

Lauren Graham: I’m just in a different place in my career [now]. Back then, you auditioned for something and did the job. Here, it was a freer discussion and a grown-up relationship with the creator of the show. I think we both felt we could really only do this if there was a dialogue where we could weigh in. We lived with these people as long as anybody and feel very protective and interested in what they would do. Amy was, in a different way, open to that. It just felt much more collaborative and fun. [We could ask] "What if? And what about this? I don’t know! Would she?" So that made it feel in a different phase, too.

Glamour: Why are Rory and Lorelai so compelling together?

Alexis: Because they're so different, like The Odd Couple. They have opposite personalities and preferences, but there are enough overlaps in their habits that make them able to hang out as friends. They really compliment one another and are each really distinctly drawn characters in their own right, so you care about both of them as well as what they mean to each other.

Robert Voets/Netflix

Glamour: When you got the script for the revival, what was the first thing you wanted to know?

Lauren: I couldn’t read the last script for a long time, and it just so happened we were shooting other scenes and it became like a joke. [Amy Sherman-Palladino] was like, "You have to read the last one before you perform it!" I was nervous what the ending would be. I just wanted to know where [Lorelai] was, and I wanted to hear things that made me feel like we had story to tell—that it wasn’t going to feel like, we’re trottin’ these old girls out for another round around the gazebo! I know the kind of answer you would like, but that’s not what this show is. Nothing happens, in a way. [Laughs] There are not necessarily big events, but how are we spending this time, and what’s the character arc, and what’s the weird journey because it’s always a weird journey! And when Amy said a couple of things to me, I said, "Oh, that’s wonderful and weird! Sign me up!" You just wanted to hear that her voice was still vivid.

Advertisement

Glamour: Alexis, how has Rory changed? Is she less idyllic?

Alexis: Rory has grown up, and I would say she is less idyllic now. [She's] maybe been worn down by various challenges she has had to face in her adult life, but underneath her weariness she still has a streak of winning positivity that maybe was instilled during her small town upbringing, as well as a hardworking, can-do attitude.

Glamour: Is there a specific moment that you can’t wait for the audience to see?

Lauren: There’s so much, honestly, it’s…a) we’re not supposed to say anything, but b) it really isn’t that because if you’re a fan of the old show, tell me five things we ever did. We don’t do much! We walk and talk, we drink a lot of coffee, we love each other, and we have some conflicts. Lorelai goes on a particular kind of journey to get a question answered within herself. [That journey] was the first [thing] Amy told me, and I thought, "That’s amazing."

Netflix/Saeed Adyani

Glamour: What was your first impression of each other when you first met?

Alexis: We met in the lobby of the hotel we were all staying at in Canada right before we went to dinner with Amy and Dan. That was the first time we met, and it felt like it was all of a sudden because it wasn’t an organized…I mean, we knew we were going to have dinner…

Lauren: That’s crazy, isn't that now to think of? We didn’t read together, they didn’t sit us down, they just were like, "Yeah."

Alexis: I was 18, and I just remember Lauren was a real professional actress, and this was my first job. [Laughs] She had all the poise and confidence and energy of a performer! That was a new thing for me. I didn’t know how to be that yet, so I just remember being a little bit…

Lauren: Overwhelmed, you had to be…

Alexis: Dazzled [by her].

Lauren: Oh, dazzled! I like dazzled!

Alexis: [Laughs] Like, "Oh, wow, she knows how to do [this]!"

Lauren: But even when I look back—in that pilot, [I’m like], "Where’d I get that confidence?!" I didn’t know as much as I know now then. In a way, I think your trajectory in this business can be vulnerable and you don’t know, and then you maybe get to a point…I always feel confident in this material, and I was like, "Yes! This is what I know how to do best!" But part of it is just how I managed feeling vulnerable.

Glamour: Lauren, do you remember what you thought of Alexis?

Lauren: Now that you talk about the lobby [of the hotel], she seemed new. But I also thought [she was] perfect for the character. Perfect. I thought we hit it off, and I thought that in enough ways, we look alike. I just I kept trying to put myself in her shoes. I came in from summer stock and kind of a different route, and I was always impressed by how much just natural ability she had from the beginning.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life starts streaming on Netflix on Friday, November 25.